Repo! The Void City Opera
by Himizu-chan
Summary: Crossover of Repo! The Genetic Opera and the Void City series by J.F. Lewis. Rated M because the movie is rated R. Essentially the plot of Repo! starring vampires, a cat demon thing, and a sex witch. Honestly I was really surprised at how similar the two stories are and how well characters translated. It's raunchy, it's tragic, and it's full of singing goths! Complete!
1. Chapter 1

A/N: So this is kind of a weird thing that just popped into my head one weekend... I had just read the Void City series that I borrowed from my friend Doom Kitty, and then I was hanging out with her and my friend Risu one weekend and we watched Repo! The Genetic Opera about five times in a row, singing along the entire time because we watch it often enough to have memorized it! And I just started thinking about how the characters from Void City and Repo are actually really similar and then this story was born, and written in about three days. I know it's kind of weirdly specific, but I like it so whatever.

Repo! The Void City Genetic Opera

The cast of the Void City series blended with the storyline of Repo! The Genetic Opera. Since this is, in fact, an opera, nearly all the dialogue will be sung, not spoken.

The Players:

Eric "Nathan" Wallace – A brooding vampire who mourns the loss of his beloved wife Marni, which leads him to be very over-protective of Greta, his adopted daughter. He used to own a strip club, but also dabbled as a scientist. Now he pretends to be a doctor, but his full time job is using his vampire powers to dispose of people who default on their payments for his former best friend, Rodger.

Marni "Marilyn" Wallace – The deceased wife of Eric. She is Rodger's former lover, and he was furious when she left him. Marni was a bone marrow donor for Greta, but she was infected with a blood disease thanks to Rodger. Eric believes that he gave her the disease from one of his other victims and so is consumed by guilt.

Greta "Shilo" Wallace – The adopted daughter of Marni and Eric. Eric rescued her from an abusive foster father when the ghost of her foster mother refused to leave him alone, and he ended up adopting her. He turned her into a vampire when she was 17 after she was infected with the blood disease that killed Marni. She was in a coma for a long time, but has since recovered, though her body is still wasted from her diseases and abuses.

Talbot the Grave Robber – The quiet disdainful and oddly feline-like drug dealer prowls around Void City harvesting a black-market version of a drug called Zydrate to sell to the denizens of the city, including Rachel. Although he becomes oddly protective of Greta, he is overall filled with contempt for the creatures that populate Void City

Rodger "Rotti" Largo – Formerly Eric's best friend and Marni's lover, he is now a vengeful old vampire. He murdered Marni and framed Eric in order to get revenge, and now that he is dying from a blood disease, he is looking for an heir. He has three "children", Philip, Ebon, and Rachel, but he thinks Greta is a more worthy heir than his own offspring. He is the founder of GeneCo, a company that manufactures organs, conducts surgeries, and makes the popular painkiller called Zydrate. It also provides a convenient place for vampires like himself and his sons (and Eric, Greta, and Tabitha) to get fresh blood.

Philip "Luigi" Largo – Philip is Rodger's oldest son. He is violent and unpredictable, callously tortures and murders anyone who displeases him, and he may also be attracted to Blind Tab.

Ebon "Pavi" Winter Largo – The oddly effeminate youngest son of Rodger tends to affect odd accents, play with the affections of women, may assault them if they don't submit, and also removes their faces to wear as his own. It is unclear how much of this is real and how much is just a game. There may be more to Ebon than his family realizes…

Rachel "Amber" Sweet – The daughter of Rodger is a spoiled and slutty young brat. She wants to be a singer, but doesn't seem to work very hard at it. She is constantly getting new surgeries to change her appearance and is addicted to Street Zydrate, provided by Talbot. She is also very slutty, scheming to get in the pants of just about every man she comes across… including her own brothers?

Blind Tab "Blind Tabitha" – The lovely blind opera singer can now see thanks to new eyes provided by GeneCo. However she decides that she wants to break her contract so that she can resume a relationship with Eric (and later be a mother to Greta).

Prologue:

Eric "Nathan" Wallace was only in his 30's when he died. He had been a strip club owner with one goal in life: To convince his beloved Marilyn to marry him. She finally said yes. And then Eric died.

Well it wasn't just as simple as that. He'd been in a terrible car accident that may or may not have been murder. He was embalmed and buried and everything seemed hunky-dory for his best friend Rodger "Rotti" Largo.

Rodger was something of a genius. His work with organ transplants had made him a legend. And then he expanded into cosmetic surgeries, as well as surgeries as a fashion statement, replacing worn-out organs with "designer" ones simply because they could. His company, GeneCo, had become incredibly powerful. They were THE brand to go to when having surgery, they manufactured an incredibly addictive painkiller called Zydrate, and they were even powerful enough to lobby Congress to allow them to repossess organs if the recipients didn't pay their bills in a timely manner. Rodger was also a vampire, since he'd sought someone to turn him so he would never die. He was obsessed with his own immortality. And he had one other obsession: Marilyn.

So Eric died and it may or may not have been Rodger who ordered that his car be tampered with. With Eric out of the way, he propositioned Marilyn. Since he was the richest man in the world, and the love of her life was dead and buried, Marilyn went along with it.

But Eric wasn't actually dead… not in the literal sense anyways. Unknown to all of them, his family suffered under a curse, and when he died, he rose again as a vampire. Luckily for Rodger, he also rose with only scattered memories of his former life. Of course, Rodger didn't want Eric's resurrection to get in the way of his relationship with Marilyn, so he told Eric that Marilyn had taken poison because she was so grief-stricken. Eric mourned his loss, but then tried to move on.

Although Eric held on to his strip club, he also began to study vampirism and blood diseases. It was a sorrowful existence, but it was better than being dead.

Rodger, of course, never told Marilyn that Eric had arisen as a vampire. He continued to court her, and even began to talk of marriage. Marilyn was reluctant at first because of Rodger's "children."

Philip "Luigi" Largo had been a ruthless mobster in life, and continued in much the same vein in un-death. Rodger had turned the cold and calculating man mostly so that he wouldn't have to compete with him later. By making him part of his "family" Rodger planned for Philip to be on his side. Unfortunately, death had made Philip more terrifying and unpredictable than before. Now he was vicious, violent, and incredibly sadistic. Rodger was powerful enough to keep him in line, and Philip had just enough respect for his sire to take his name, and to not murder him in his bed.

Ebon "Pavi" Winter Largo had charisma, charm, and cleverness to spare. But he also had an unusual appetite for seduction. No sex, no one had ever proven that he'd had sex with anyone, but he was fond of courting and romancing both males and females. No one knew whether it was un-death that did him in, or just fear of his sadistic "brother" Philip, but Ebon seemed to crack under the pressure. He became more aggressive towards his attentive women, more flamboyant, more effeminate, and developed the nasty habit of attacking women to steal their faces and wear the skin on a mask over his own face. Whether he'd lost his mind completely or was just affecting the persona to seem more harmless was a question for someone more versed in psychology.

And then there was Rachel. Rachel "Amber" Sweet was the only one of the Rodger's "children" that wasn't a vampire. She had died young, spent some time in hell, become a Tantric sex witch, and then been raised from the dead by some demons to serve Rodger. Rodger had killed the demons in hopes of earning her loyalty, but it hadn't really worked. She stuck around though, playing the part of the spoiled princess daughter in hopes of collecting some of Rodger's money later. She also took advantage of Rodger's position and wealth to attempt to (rather unsuccessfully) pursue a singing career, and also to change her appearance constantly with extensive surgeries, as well as getting hooked on the powerful narcotic, Zydrate. Whenever Rodger tried to cut her off, she would just go behind his back and buy black market Zydrate from dealers. This was common knowledge among the tabloid reporters and they attacked her for it whenever they got the chance.

So with all three of his children several different levels of crazy and disloyal, it was little wonder that Rodger wanted to have a wife that he could count on to not plot against him. So he wooed Marilyn. And his plan might have succeeded except for a series of coincidences.

Eric met Blind Tabitha outside of his strip club one morning. She was an exquisitely beautiful creature, though it had been a cruel joke by her sire to turn her into a vampire, cursing her to live for eternity without the use of her eyes. She was a lovely girl in her early 20's with a slender build and a glorious mane of black hair that tumbled down to her waist. Eric met her when he left his strip club to investigate the noises he heard.

Philip had also met Blind Tabitha. He was in the process of trying to force her to come to the Largo estate. Tabitha was putting up quite a fight, and Philip was clearly not used to dealing with another vampire after his years of easily dispatching of human women. Eric fought the other vampire off and guided Tabitha away to safety. Gradually he learned of her extraordinary talent for singing and suggested that they should go together to the Largo estate to see if perhaps something could be done for her eyes.

While they were at the estate, Rodger agreed to listen to her sing and decide if she might be useful. Eric warned him sternly to keep Philip away from her. Meanwhile Tabitha lived with Eric whenever she wasn't at the Largo estate. And when she was at the estate, she spent most of her time in the company of Marilyn, who was delighted to have another female presence that wasn't a total whore.

Rodger and GeneCo had developed artificial eyes that could allow the blind to see. Marilyn begged Rodger to allow Tabitha to be one of the first to have the surgery, and he agreed as long as she signed a contract. She would sing in the opera, and also be the voice of GeneCo, a testament to their vision, their generosity. She agreed, so desperate she was to see, that she did not think of how long an eternity of servitude truly was.

The surgery was a success. For the first time, Tabitha could open her eyes and actually see the people who spoke to her. The eyes themselves were an unnaturally bright blue, but they were lovely and fit so perfectly in her pretty face. She was soon worshipped by everyone, both for her beauty and for her voice. But with sight came a new revelation.

Marilyn kept a photograph of Eric in her nightstand. It was the only one of him she had. One day, Tabitha caught her looking at it.

"Who is he?" she asked. Marilyn smiled. She was in her 50's now, but still very much the woman Eric had fallen in love with.

"He was my fiancé but he died in an accident," she said sadly.

"And I suppose you miss him and still love him," Tabitha said, fighting to keep the bitterness from her voice.

"Of course. I'll always love him," Marilyn replied simply. "But he's gone… and Rodger has always been so good to me, so I suppose I'll have to marry him at some point."

Tabitha bit her lip, tiny white fangs digging into her painted black lip. Eric had spoken to her many times of his fiancée, Marni. He said that she had committed suicide after he died, and Tabitha had never made the connection. She was torn, but she simply could not hide the truth from her best friend and from the man she loved with all her heart.

"Marilyn… Eric is a vampire. He's still around. Did Rodger never tell you?" she whispered. Marilyn looked so shocked that Tabitha feared for her health.

"He's alive?" she gasped. "Why didn't he come for me?"

"I think Rodger told him that something happened to you."

"I need to see him," Marilyn said simply.

So the two women slipped from the estate, and found Eric at his club. When he saw Marilyn, he looked as though he'd seen a ghost.

"Marni… How…?"

"Oh Eric!" she cried, throwing herself into his arms.

They held each other close and it seemed they would never let go of each other. Tabitha watched, helpless and miserable. She loved Eric, but the love that these two shared… she could never compete with it. Even if she insisted on marrying Eric like they had talked about, he would never really be interested in her. He would always be longing for Marilyn… and she for him. Finally they broke their embrace. Marilyn had tears in her eyes.

"Oh Eric… I can't be with you now."

"Marni, why not?" Eric begged.

"You have Tabitha… and I'm promised to Rodger. We can't…"

"Screw Rodger!" Eric hissed passionately. Marni turned towards Tabitha.

"I know you love him. I can't come between you two."

"That's what I should be saying," Tabitha said softly. "I can't hope to compete with this. Go get married. Right now!" she gasped, excitement filling her voice. Eric and Marilyn looked at each other.

"Should we?" Marni gasped.

"Let's!" Eric said joyfully. And with that, they went off and got married before Rodger had time to throw a wrench in their plans. And for a while, they lived in wedded bliss. Rodger even seemed to forgive them, giving Eric some money for his research into blood diseases.

A few years after their hasty marriage, Eric went out to feed. He killed a middle-aged woman, but, as happens sometimes, the woman's spirit didn't depart when her body was destroyed. Usually Eric found someone to deal with the problem, but this time, the woman's request was fairly simple. Go to a nearby house and kill the man inside. He was her husband, and she was frightened of what he would do to their adopted daughter without her there to stop him. So to shut her up, Eric went off to the house. He killed the man, but was too late to protect the daughter. She'd been beaten and raped and was clearly traumatized. Unable to abandon her to a system that had already failed her once, Eric brought her back to the house he shared with his Marni.

Greta "Shilo" was a pale and frightened girl, carrying deep scars from her life in the foster system and from her most recent attack. It probably wasn't the first time she'd been raped, Eric and Marni grimly acknowledged. The child was traumatized and nearly catatonic for a long time. Eric and Marni were so worried about her state of mind that they kept her away from other people, including Tabitha. To make things worse, she had leukemia and fighting the illness had taken a toll on her body.

Six years later, when she was seventeen, Greta had to go back to the hospital. It was grim. She needed a bone marrow transplant. Fortunately, Marni proved to be a surprisingly close match and it was decided that she would be the donor.

Meanwhile, Rodger had been plotting his revenge on Eric and Marni. He had used Eric's research to engineer a pathogen that would even attack and kill vampires who were infected with the illness. So he decided to give a drug contaminated with the pathogen to Marni, and when Eric fed on her (which Rodger was sure he would do at some point), the disease would pass to him and kill them both. He didn't realize that Marni was going to be Greta's marrow donor and he gave her the drug shortly before the surgery, so Eric never fed on her.

The day of the surgery, the doctors started collecting the bone marrow and transferring it to Greta. Marni had been feeling a bit poorly, but it was decided that the transfusion should take place anyways. Shortly after everything was completed, Marni started having a seizure and blood began spurting from her eyes and all her orifices. Eric scrambled to help her, but then Greta's heart monitor started racing out of control.

Eric frantically tried to save his wife, but Marni died in his arms before anything could be done to help her. The autopsy showed the new disease, and Rodger helpfully suggested that Eric may have fed on someone who was infected, and then passed the illness onto Marni, even though this couldn't possibly be true since Eric would have died as well. However, Eric didn't realize this and so he was consumed by guilt to such a degree that he could barely function. Greta fell into a coma and for a while it was unknown whether she would survive. Her body was so ravaged by the disease that it seemed that the slightest illness would kill her, and finally Eric concluded that he could not live without her. Even though he'd firmly told her he wouldn't turn her into a vampire until she was 21, he realized that she would have a much better chance of surviving if she was a vampire. So he turned her and she did finally recover, although she looked more like a ghost or a corpse than a living person by the time all was said and done. Since the disease had been mutated in her bone marrow, it was not fatal to her when she was turned into a vampire, though she was still incredibly frail. Rodger helpfully handed over a recipe for a new medication that should keep the symptoms under control and keep the disease from returning to finish her off, and Eric was grateful for his suggestion and strove to learn how to reproduce it exactly.

Thanks to all the medical bills, Marni's funeral, and the elegant mausoleum that Eric had erected to house her body, Eric found himself bankrupt. He was forced to sell his strip club, and finally had to go to Rodger to get help so that he wouldn't lose the house. Rodger gave him a job as a Repo Man, in charge of repossessing organs from people who didn't pay their bills on time. Eric didn't like the job, but Greta didn't know that he had been the cause of Marni's death (since she had been in a coma afterwards), and there was the small matter that Childs Services could be called to take the girl away since Eric had basically stolen her… plus she was forever underage now. In order to protect her, Eric told everyone that Greta had died as well, and kept her safely locked up in his house. She was too frail to be out in the grim polluted environment of Void City, she still bore the scars from her childhood trauma, and Eric was sure that someone from Childs Services would take her away from him. In order to have enough money to provide for his little girl, and to keep Rodger from prying too much into their lives, Eric accepted the job of Repo Man.

Meanwhile, Tabitha tried to insert herself back into Eric's life. Marni had been insistent that Tabitha should help raise Greta, but Eric couldn't bring himself to have her around. Some of his old feelings for Tabitha were rekindled when he saw her, but it felt like he was betraying Marni. So for Greta's sake, and for his own feelings, he pushed her away and kept himself and Greta shut up in their drafty old mansion. He decorated the entire house with attractive holographic portraits of his beloved Marni and mourned the loss of his beloved wife. Despite the gloomy environment, Greta did finally begin to slowly recover emotionally, although physically she was still a fragile girl. For seventeen years, they existed like this. And so our story begins…


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Repo! The Genetic Opera or the Void City series.

It is a bleak future in Void City. A mysterious illness has spread though the population, causing organ failure in human, vampires, and werewolves alike. Rodger "Rotti" Largo finds that the secret is to make organs for transplant, making surgeries more affordable to the general populace. Eventually his company is so successful that people start getting surgeries even when they don't really need them. Rodger's company is incredibly successful, yet there is a dark side. If those who get surgeries are unable to keep up with payment, Rodger sends Repo Men to collect their organs, by killing the victim.

A chorus of somewhat high-pitched voices can be heard. "Reeeeeepooooo Maaaaaaan… Reeeeeepoooooo Maaaaaan."

Talbot the Grave Robber, a lean and handsome figure with long dark hair and a predatory smile, reclines against the brick wall of a dank and filthy alley. He doesn't seem to mind though as he straightens his black trench coat and begins to sing with a low pleasant growl.

"Out from the night, from the mist, steps a figure. No one really knows his name for sure. He stands at 6'6" head and shoulders. Pray he never comes knocking at your door…

Say that you once bought a heart or new corneas, but somehow never managed to square away your debts… He won't bother to write or to phone you. He'll just rip the still-beating heart from your chest!" Fangs appear briefly in his mouth, but then they are gone as he continues to smile pleasantly.

The scene changes to another dark dank alley as a thin pretty curly-haired girl runs through. She knocks frantically on several doors, screaming for help. Talbot's voice can be heard over the sound of her sobs.

"Now, you could run. You could hide. You could try to. But he always has a way of finding you. He will come at your weakest hour, when no one is around who might rescue you."

The girl ends up trapped in an old-fashioned cage-like elevator, and a figure clad in a black leather-like coat and wearing a black mask that covers his entire face except for his mouth leaps down towards her, ripping into her throat with his fangs. She gurgles helplessly for a moment before collapsing to the ground. The figure uses his fangs to rip into her body and gently rip away organs, checking each one for barcodes and placing a few organs into a small cooler.

The chorus can be heard again. "Reeeeeepooooo Maaaaaaan… Reeeeeepoooooo Maaaaaan."

"And none of us…" continues Talbot, "are free from this horror, for many years ago, we all fell in debt. New body parts were needed to perfect our image, and until our debts are clear, we will live in fear of the..."

"Reeeeeepooooo Maaaaaaan… Reeeeeepoooooo Maaaaaan."

The view changes to an overview of Void City. A gigantic Jumbotron screen can be seen showing pictures and messages. A woman's voice can be heard pleading that the repossessions must be kept legal in order to keep transplants affordable. Then a male voice calls out that the viewers must "Tune in tonight for Blind Tabitha's farewell performance at the Genetic Opera!"

Cut to Rodger's office. Two young female vampires wearing suit jackets, shades, very short skirts, and fishnet stockings walk out of an elevator. Both have their blonde hair pulled up in severe up-dos, have blue lipstick on their lips, and carry large guns. In perfect unison, they walk up to Rodger's desk and move to stand behind his chair. One girl hands him a set of photographs. He starts to look through them. Rodger himself has a lined face and hair that was just starting to become silver when he was turned. He looks tired, but still very much in control of his life and his affairs.

"What is this?" Rodger asks. He looks at the first photo, which depicts his son Philip "Luigi" crouched over a young woman's body, holding a bloody knife.

He looks at Philip. Philip is also an older man, inclined to a bit of plumpness, with a hooked nose and wild eyes. He's a bit twitchy and flinches under his father's glare. "You disgust me," Rodger manages to spit out. He looks at the next photo. His daughter, Rachel "Amber" is lying on the ground of an alley, clearly under the influence of drugs. Her legs are spread open, allowing a view of what's under her skirt for anyone who cares to look. Rodger looks up to see his daughter reclined on a couch, fluffing her hair and preening herself. She still looks like a very young girl, with long black hair, luminous dark eyes, and garbed in a delicate white dress. Rodger shakes his head and moves to the next photo where he sees his son Ebon "Pavi" crouching over the body of a woman. This woman is naked from the waist down and her shirt is ripped. Ebon is holding a bloody knife and the skin of the woman's face. Rodger glances at his son, who is perched on the edge of a chair and clutching a mirror. Ebon is a slight young man with perfectly coifed dark hair. He examines himself in the mirror, carefully touching the cheeks of the mask with a brand-new face stretched over it that obliterates his own features. This face has slim lips and a small pointed nose.

Rodger gazes furiously at all three of his children, but he is interrupted when another vampire walks in. This one is old and gray-haired, wearing a white coat and clutching several transparencies. Rodger accepts them and begins to look at them (somehow having no trouble reading them despite the fact that they are transparent). They are test results. Rodger can see that he himself now has signs of the same blood disease that he used to kill Marni seventeen years ago. It is the only disease in the world that can kill a vampire. He realizes he probably contaminated himself during the laboratory trials and has ironically begun his own demise. He has never successfully made an antibiotic, and Greta is the only vampire known to survive the disease, thanks to the disease originating in her bone marrow instead of her blood.

"I'm sorry Mr. Largo…" the vampire doctor whispers, his voice shaking slightly. "I'm afraid… I'm afraid it's terminal. You don't have much time. It's spreading rapidly." He freezes as Rodger slams the transparencies down on his desk. Then one of the female vampires lifts her gun and shoots the doctor right through the heart with a silver bullet. He lets out a strangled moan and falls to the floor. Rodger and the girls walk towards the elevator. As they reach it, a soft chorus of women's voices begin to sing.

"Thing you see… In a graveyard… Things you see… In a graveyard…"

"Maggots," snaps Rodger. "Vermin. You want the world for nothing. Commence your groveling. Rodger, your king, is dying. Even Rotti Largo cannot prevent this passing. Who will inherit GeneCo? I'll keep those vultures guessing." He begins to laugh wildly as the chorus resumes.

"Thing you see… In a graveyard… Things you see… In a graveyard…"

"I'll keep those vultures guessing!"

"Guessing, guessing, guessing…"

The scene changes to a house. In a large bed lies a young teenage girl, Greta "Shilo" Wallace. Her skin is the chalk white of a corpse and her hair is the deathly black of a raven. She wears a white shirt and a black schoolgirl skirt. Her black eyes snap open, as though she hears the music. She stands up, puts of a gas mask, and starts walking down a small tunnel until she reaches a mausoleum. She places a book and a vial of blood on a memorial stone that reads "Marilyn "Marni" Wallace". As she sips the blood, a lovely glowing bug floats past her. She tries to catch it in a jar, but it slips through the bars on the window-like slit of the door. She licks the blood from her lips and glances around guiltily before singing in a soft and slightly high-pitched voice.

"This will be quick… It's in my sight… I'll capture it… Run back inside… And be back home in time."

She scampers outside and snatches the bug with a glass jar, then turns to see Talbot the Grave Robber digging up a grave. He doesn't appear to see her, but then he begins to sing.

"Industrialization has… crippled the globe."

A tinny voice begins speaking from a loudspeaker nearby, alternating with Talbot's. "Enjoy GeneCo's day and nighttime formulas of Zydrate."

"Nature failed… as technology spread…"

"Ask a gentern if Zydrate is right for you."

"And in its wake, a market erected." Talbot finds his prize and pulls out a dead body, dumping it unceremoniously on the ground, causing Greta to gasp in surprise and horror.

"Buying Zydrate from an unlicensed source is illegal."

"An entire city… built on top of the dead. And you… can finance… your bones… and your kidneys. For every market a submarket grows."

"No…" whispers Greta, seeing flashlights appearing at the edge of the graveyard.

"But best you be punctual," Talbot continues, seeming oblivious, "with making your payments… Lest it be you on the concrete be-LOW." He pulls out a syringe, sticking it up the corpse's nose and extracting a fluorescent blue liquid. "It's quick. It's clean. It's pure. It could change your life… rest assured. It's the 21st century… cure! And it's my job… to steal… and rob… GRAVES!" At that last word he stands straight up, throwing his head back and howling the word to the sky.

"No! Please, please stop!" Greta wails as sirens blare and the flashlights all turn in Talbot's direction.

"Grave robbers are on the premise! Lockdown, lockdown!" Someone was yelling.

"No, no, no, no!" Greta wails as she races to the door of her mausoleum, but it has shut and locked. "It's locked!"

"This way, kid," Talbot hisses, beckoning.

"Wait! You're going to get us caught!" Greta whimpers. But she follows him anyways as he picks up the corpse and uses it to batter down a small wall. It is a room filled with discarded corpses. The undignified heap of corpses seems to stretch for miles though it quickly vanishes in the dark. A feline smile appears on Talbot's face.

"Jackpot!" he purrs, climbing in. Greta follows, though she is shaking like a leaf. "So why care for these… petty obsessions? Your designer heart still beats with common blood. And what if you could have… genetic… perfection? Would you change who you are if you could? 'Cause it's quick. It's clean. And it's pure." He almost whispers as he sticks the vial under Greta's nose. She looks horrified.

"No, I shouldn't be here."

"It could change your life… rest assured."

"I have got to get home."

"It's the 21st century… cure!"

"This cannot be happening!" Greta's voice is frantic, but still clear and lovely.

"And it's my job… to steal… and rob… GRAVES!"

As he sings that last word, a pair of arms reaches into the hole and snatches Greta out. "No, no, no, please!" she wails as she is dropped to the ground.

"Grave robbers will be executed on sight!" the loudspeaker snarls.

"Graves!" Talbot howls again before dashing off into the night, leaving Greta to her fate.

"Let them go," the loudspeaker says suddenly just as we see Rodger peering at a TV screen and watching the scene.

"I didn't know! Please!" Greta wails.

"Hey!" someone yells. Suddenly the man in black from before appears, shoving aside the guards furiously. Greta continues to whimper as she sinks to the ground and passes out, a dim vision of the man in black appearing just before she blacks out. A tinny voice begins to chirp.

"Blood pressure warning. Blood pressure warning. Medicate immediately. Medicate immediately."

Greta opens her eyes and finds herself lying in her large bed. She sits up quickly and sees her adopted father, Eric. "Dad!"

"Hey. It was a close one," he whispers. Though a bit older, he is still a good looking man. He has rich blonde hair and an easy smile that conceals his fangs rather well.

"Dad…"

"Too close."

"Dad, what happened?"

"You're gonna be all right, that's all that matters."

"Was I outside?"

"No Shi."

"There were these bodies…"

"You missed your medicine and fell unconscious."

"They were all dead!"

"Nonsense. Please be more cautious, you could go into shock."

"But it was real, Dad!"

"I am the doctor. And I'm your father."

"I didn't imagine this."

"Please, Greta, drop it."

"Couldn't have fathomed this."

"Please, Greta, stop it."

"Dad, I could smell the dead!"

"You could have died! You… You scare me to death!" He looks furious for a minute, then composes himself and stares down at his beloved adopted daughter. "A blood disease… that took your dear mother from us… passed from her, and into your veins. I'd be lost if I were to lose you. I will stop at nothing to keep you safe!"

"I'll take my meds, Dad, don't you worry," she reassures him gently in her soft childish voice.

"Just until I find a cure. Your mother, rest her soul, would be so proud of you. Though you cannot see her, she is here with you. We will always be there for you in your time of need… Greta, you're the world to me." Eric walks out the door and locks it to lock Greta inside. "Greta, take your medicine," he calls to her. Greta stands up and stares at the door for a minute.

"I'm… infected… I'm infected… by your genetics." She glares up at the holographic portrait of Marni staring down at her. "Greta, I'm the doctor. Greta, I'm your father. Oh Greta, that was close. Take your medicine. I'm infected… by your genetics… I'm infected… by your genetics. And I don't think that I can be fixed. No, I don't think that I can be fixed. Tell me why, oh why are me genetics such a bitch?" She begins to pace frantically around the room, flipping through books and finally flopping down on the bed to glare at her adopted mother again.

"It's this blood condition, damn this blood condition. Mother, can you hear me? Thanks for the disease! Now I am sequestered, part of the collection. That's what is expected when you are infected. That's what is expected when you are infected. That's what is expected when you are infected. How much of it's genetics? How much of it is fate? How much of it depends on the choices that we make? He says I have her eyes, did I also inherit his shame? Is heredity the culprit? Can I stop it, or am I a slave?"

She tosses aside a book and walks slowly over to her barred window, gripping the bars with her thin white hands. Her voice drops and becomes soft and almost pitiful. "Ooohhhh… I want to go outside… outside… Oooohhhh… I want to go… outside… outside…"

Greta hadn't even dreamed of wanting to leave the house for at least a decade after Marni's death. The illness, her past trauma's, and then the shock of losing the closest thing she had to a mother had nearly destroyed her. She had been furious with her father for turning her into a vampire, and was still coming to terms with the fact that she was destined to be a frail seventeen-year-old girl for the rest of her life. But she was slowly coming to terms with the idea that she should begin to move on with her life. She yearned to speak with someone else who wasn't her father. And she wanted to see the outside world, something she had shut herself off from for two decades now.

Outside the Jumbotron continued to blare its message. "Ladies and gentlemen, Signore, signori… Don't you dare touch your TV. Tonight's genetic opera is the place to be! That's right friends!"

Eric paces slowly back and forth in his living room. Behind him is a hallway with many portraits of his beloved Marni. He looks agonized and his singing reflects that. "Where did our daughter go? It's me she must escape. My burdens I can't erase. The mother I might have saved."

Voices seem to come from the portraits now. "Assassin, murderer, monster."

"Marni, I need you now. Look what I've become. The nightmare that she should fear… is the father you left alone." This ends in a drawn-out wail as he mourns his wife. "The years roll by without you, Marni. Seventeen have come and gone… I've raised our Greta with the best intentions. But there is something I can't tell her. I'm lost without you here. I am only living out a lie! Greta can never leave. She is my everything. Nothing can bring you back. Greta is all I have."

"Assassin, murderer, monster."

"Years roll by without you, Marni. Seventeen have come and gone. I raised our Greta with the best intentions. There is something I can't tell her. I am lost without you here. I am only living out a lie!" With that, he storms over to the fireplace, pulls a hidden switch, and descends into an underground lab. He pulls on the black leather jumpsuit that we have already seen is the uniform of the Repo Men and walks over towards a man who is bound to a chair and gagged.

"I'm the monster."

"Assassin." In a breathy whisper in the background.

"I'm the villain."

"Assassin."

"What perfection!"

"Assassin."

"What precision!"

"Assassin."

"Clean incisions… I deliver. Unscathed organs… I deliver. Repossessions… I deliver. I'm the Repo. Legal assassin." As he chants/sings, he cuts into his victim, taking out his fearsome rage on his helpless victim before collapsing. His eyes are glowing red with anger, but he is not quite in his terrifying Uber-Eric stage.

Guilt has overtaken Eric completely now. He is no closer to finding a cure for Greta than he was seventeen years ago. He can feel her starting to pull away from him and his obsessions, but he still fears that the disease could rear up and try to claim her. He knows she is still a very fragile girl and he still remembers the tear-stained face of the violated girl, lying naked in her foster father's bed. Marni adored the girl and wanted to heal her, and Eric did as well. Now he wants to finish her work, but he is thoroughly unprepared to care for a young girl. And sometimes, lying alone in bed, he thinks of Tabitha… and then the guilt consume him again, hating himself for betraying Marni's memory in this way.

The scene changes to a GeneCo warehouse. A growly voice is chanting in the background. "Lungs and livers and bladders and hearts… You always save a bundle when you buy our GeneCo parts. Spleens, intestines, and spines and brains. All at warehouse prices but our quality's the same. GeneCo!"

Now female voices begin singing. "Mark it up. Mark it up. Mark it up. Mark it up." We see the inside of a warehouse. Organs are everywhere in jars and coolers. Young women who look more like strippers than nurses walk around in skimpy uniforms that just barely cover them up, so tight that little is left to the imagination. These women, known as genterns, are carrying tubs of organs or writing on clipboards. The three Largo children are there too. Philip is brandishing his knife, Ebon is staring at himself in a mirror while two girls fondle him, and Rachel storms in with two sexy beefcakes wearing black pants and black (there is no other word for it) harnesses across their bare chests. They also wear black sunglasses and their expressions never change no matter what Rachel does to them.

"Where the fuck is Dad, brothers?" Rachel demands haughtily.

"He left me in charge, sister!" Philip says fiercely. "I don't take lip from a slut!"

At the same time, "I don't take lip from a cunt!" Rachel sings back, punching him in the nuts as she does so. He grimaces angrily.

Ebon smiles, tilting his head to one side and purring, "My brother and sister should fuck…"

"Ebon! Shut the fuck up!" Philip yells at him. "I'm the smartest! And the toughest! I will find a hole and fuck it!" he adds, making several crude gestures to demonstrate. As he does so, a pretty young gentern walks by carrying a brain. She crashes into him, smearing blood all over his white shirt. Without pause, he stabs a hole in her stomach. He whips out his dick, sticking it right in the hole he just made in her stomach, fiercely fucking her expiring body for a moment before dropping her to the floor and tucking his dick away in the same movement so we are spared the sight of male frontal nudity. "If there ain't one… I will make one. Philip don't take shit from no one." He tore off his shirt, revealing several thick scars crisscrossing his torso. "One brain, mark it up. Only I got brains enough. That's why Pop will leave GeneCo to me, me, me, me, me, me!"

Ebon takes several steps forward, swinging his hips a little as he does so. "Ask a gentern… who they prefer. Ten out of nine will say the Pavi. The most dashing… panty-snatching…" As he sings, he reaches down and snatches the bright red thongs off his two genterns. "I will leave your diapers dripping. Two hearts, mark it up. Ebon steals all of the hearts."

"You ain't got the guts, brother!" Philip exclaims.

"All bark, but no lungs, brother," Ebon replies smoothly. "Dad will leave GeneCo to me."

They start singing in unison as they circled, facing each other and looking for an opening. "You wait… Time will tell."

"Ebon's face…"

"Luigi's fists…"

"…will woo them all…"

"…will rule you all…"

"When I inherit…"

"I'll inherit…"

"All Dad's stuff…"

"All this stuff…"

"Take Dad's will and write you out!"

"Take my cut and mark it up!"

Together again… "Mark it up, mark it up!" They link arms, faces nearly touching as they glare at each other.

"You could cut the sexual tension with a knife…" Rachel mutters as she storms out of the building.

Frankly, all three members of the Largo brood have some sexual issues to work out. Philip may be violent and savage, but he isn't immune to a pretty face and is always trying to get into Tabitha's bed. He uses sex as a show of dominance.

Rachel is just a run-of-the-mill slut, happy to spread her legs for anyone that has something she wants, usually either Zydrate or money to buy Zydrate. But being a Tantric sex witch has its benefits and she also uses her sexuality to control men. She does this with her two beefcake bodyguards, and also with some men that she just wants to dominate for whatever reason. There is a rather terrifying question buried in there about who would be dominant if Philip and Rachel ever decided to take each other on, but we won't be exploring that.

Ebon is a mystery wrapped in an enigma. He enjoys the dance of seduction. He prides himself on having a variety of beautiful men AND women at his beck and call. And of course there's his obsession with stealing faces… However, no one is sure if he has sex with his chosen ones. Although he seems strange and simpering, there is an odd sexuality about him. Unfortunately, he's very sensitive, and tends to react badly to rejection. Catty and simpering, he cuts a comical figure and everyone underestimates him. The masks he wears of women's faces are also good at hiding his eyes and his real thoughts.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Still don't own Repo! or the Void City series or any characters contained herein. Have a nice day!

Greta lies on her bed in her room watching TV. Blind Tabitha dances and sings on stage at one of her performances while her voice-over speaks about a special GeneCo product. Greta ignores the words, lip-syncing the song lyrics and humming to herself.

"Hi. I'm Blind Tabitha. Your treasured memories don't have to fade with time. Announcing GeneCo's Cornea Plus, GeneCo's breakthrough optical technology, where everything is digitally recorded so you can relive your favorite memories again and again."

The TV changes to another commercial, with a male voice this time. "Don't miss out on tonight's genetic opera…"

Greta looks up and sees that her wrist communicator has a message. She grabs for it as she hears a voice saying "…from Rodger Largo." Then his holographic head appears. "Incoming message from Rodger Largo."

"Greta… You don't know me, but your mother was once very dear to me. I can help you find your cure. Meet me in your mother's tomb."

The scene changes to Rodger sitting in the backseat of a limousine. "Ashes. Dust. My children were a bust. They shall inherit nothing. No, no… My legacy is too great… to throw away on ingrates. Eric Wallace had potential… till he stole my Marni away. In denial, Eric blamed himself for Marni's sudden death, and never once thought to suspect the man who wrote his checks. I guess… I'll take it to my death."

A chorus can be heard in the background. "Things you see… in a graveyard… Things you see… in a graveyard."

"I'll take it… to… my… death!" And then Rodger dissolves into laughter for the rest of the drive. When they arrive at the tomb, he steps out of the limo and stares longingly at the door. "Marni… It's Rotti. You never should've left me. I would have given you the world. It's been difficult to see you after what you've put me through. You forced my hand and made me do… Well, it looks like I'll be joining you. It seems the man who cured the globe cannot stop his own extinction… But I can go out with a bang!"

He steps away from the door and the twin vampire chicks walk quickly over, pulling on gas masks, kicking the door in, throwing in a smoke bomb, and stepping in to grab Greta and drag her out, despite her pleas.

"I can go out with a bang…" Rodger murmurs to himself.

"Things you see… in a graveyard…"

"Blood pressure warning…"

"No, no please! I can't be outside!" Greta sobs. "I can't be outside!"

"Things you see… in a graveyard…"

"Blood pressure warning… medicate immediately…"

Greta is plopped into the backseat of the limo across from Rodger. She pulls out a bottle of pills and fumbles with them for a moment before one of the twins snatches it from her and hands her a pill while the other pulls a glass of water from out of nowhere. Greta gulps them down frantically and turned to face Rodger, who smiles benignly at her.

"Greta… thanks for coming. It's nice to see young talent blooming. My kids have been… well, disappointing. I'm Rodger Largo."

"I know."

"I own GeneCo."

"Please let me go."

"Sorry to be so difficult. I had no choice; you're a tough one to find. Climbing through holes… tell me, why do you hide your pretty face?"

"I'm not… I cannot be outside. I… have a blood disease."

"But there is hope, an antidote, and you could be the first… to sample it, the GeneCo fix to all blood diseases. And I could use… someone like you. The poster child of progress. It's the cure you sought, Greta. Your chance to see the world, Greta. In… your… grasp."

"I don't…"

"A function awaits… Will you be my date?"

"I can't."

"Blind Tab will be there."

"Tabitha?"

"You two should meet."

"No. I must leave. My dad will worry."

"Who says that Dad needs to know everything?"

They stare at each other for a long painful moment before Greta nods, ducking her head so she doesn't have to look at Rodger.

Meanwhile, in a dark alley, Rachel is prowling around with her beefcake henchmen. She is dressed as a dominatrix, wearing a black corset, with black leather straps around her legs, and a black leather coat thrown over the whole thing. To top it all off, she is carrying a whip and cracking it against the walls of the alley as she walks. Spotting Talbot the Grave Robber, she approaches him, swinging her hips provocatively. She leans against the brick wall, thrusting her hips forward. In the background, a voice can be heard chanting, "Can't get it up. Can't get it up. Can't get it up."

"Z me," she purrs. "Give me a hit now, hurry! Don't keep my surgeons waiting."

"Bitch, pay me," snaps Talbot.

"Later," she whines softly, crouching down and slithering on her belly across the ground in the alley towards Talbot.

"Ok… I'll see you later." He starts walking away from her, but the beefcake bodyguards step in his path and stop him.

"Where you going? Stay here!" Rachel snarls. She sashays her way back between her two beefcakes. "There's ways for me to pay dear… other than dough."

Talbot freezes and turns back towards her, eyes wide with surprise. Rachel shrugs out of her coat and leans forward, showing off her generous cleavage. Then she turns to one of her beefcakes, grabbing his hand and placing it on her butt. Then she drags the hand down to mid-thigh and jerks his arm so he lifts her leg up against his body. They hold that position for a moment. Then Rachel turns around to face the other beefcake. She bends over and leans in to run her tongue down his sculpted abs while the first beefcake keeps his hands on her butt and leans into her just a little. Talbot lifts an eyebrow.

Then Rachel slides forward, swinging her hips again. For some reason, porn music starts playing and Rachel's voice drops into something low, sultry, and honey-covered. "I want a hit of Z… and we're not talking for free… Let's do some give and take… baby I'll give till I break. But I ain't nobody's fool… this bitch knows the rules…" She continues to slither and pose, touching herself seductively and smiling up at Talbot. "I'll let you fuck my soul… for a hit of the glow… so come on! Man up! Come up and try my new parts! Come on and break them in!" she exclaims, grabbing at Talbot, trying to grab his junk with a shocking desperation.

Talbot dodges her grip, then stares at her for a moment. The two beefcakes stand at either end of the alley. One has somehow gotten a hold of Rachel's whip and is cracking it against the wall.

"Any way you want me, know you want to take me…" Rachel purrs, laying on the ground again and continuing to pose seductively. Then she jumps up, grabbing Talbot's junk in one hand. "What's the matter, Grave Robber? Can't get it up if the girl's breathing? You're a vampire lover, aren't you?" She laughs wildly at this thought.

Talbot shoves her away furiously. It is painfully obvious that he isn't interested in having sex with her. But Rachel refuses to take no for an answer. Soon she is on the ground again, this time on all fours, her shapely ass in the air, wiggling in Talbot's direction.

"Come on baby… I don't care where you put it baby… surprise me. Come and work me. I know you like it naughty… come on and take me… Before I change my heart… shut up and try my new parts."

Talbot hurls a vial of bright blue Zydrate in her direction. "Here, take it. Just get away from me."

Smirking, Rachel skips forward and grabs the vial, then skips happily away, followed by her beefcakes. She is utterly unencumbered by any guilt or shame related to whoring herself off just for her drugs.

In the basement of his home, Eric stands before a man who is shackled spread-eagle against a flat surface. Eric's eyes glow fierce and red, his hair is wet and slicked back, and his voice is deeper and wilder, as though a second personality had invaded his psyche.

"It's a thankless job!" Uber-Eric snarls. "But somebody's got to do it!" His victim utters several terrified whines and shakes so badly that the chains rattle loudly. Eric glides and twirls around the room like the world's most terrifying dancer. "Peeling off the tissue inch by inch… Skinning off the muscles slow!" He holds his arms out like an airplane and whirls around for a bit. "Harvesting the kidneys for the fall… Saving up the livers in the fridge! No one ever thanks me when I'm done. How self-absorbed people can be."

Eric steps back and regards his victim for a moment before plunging his claws deep into the terrified man's stomach. "With a slice… or a snip… Eenie meanie miney moe… With a cut… and a stitch… Returning organs good as new." As he speaks, he keeps slicing into his victim's stomach, pulling out his intestines and other organs. Jamming his hand up into the victim's rib cage, he suddenly finds himself in a playful mood, squeezing to make the lifeless victim's mouth move and speaking in a high-pitched voice as though he were a ventriloquist and the lifeless corpse were his dummy.

"It's a thankless job… but somebody's got to do it," he growls.

"Got to do it!" he squeaks, echoing himself.

"Like a mop!"

"Like a mop!"

"And a broom."

"And a broom."

"No one wants a thankless job!" he growls, then comes back to himself abruptly as the corpse voids its bowels all over his boots. A grimace of distaste crosses Eric's face and he shoves the body aside and goes off to clean up. "And this is exactly why I wear this fake plastic leather," he mutters grimly.

In the background, a commercial can be heard. "GeneCo's Digital Corneas provide state-of-the-art resolution and low density without sacrificing style. Hi, I'm Blind Tabitha, the voice of GeneCo. At GeneCo, an affordable organ makeover is just a simple financing away. Take control of your life , because it's what's on the inside the counts."

A male voice speaks now. "Financed organs are subject to all legal default remedies including repossession…"

Two male newscasters appear on screen now. "Sorry folks, it'll be a long time before GeneCo can help you sing like Tabitha."

"I don't know about you, Bob, but I haven't been this excited since my first elective surgery."

"No doubt, Dick. Excitement's in the air. For one day a year only, Sanitarian Square will open its gates and welcome all of us to its post-plague Italian Renaissance! GeneCo's new Rome. Ah, the cuisine, the music, the culture. GeneCo provides the finest in Italian-inspired body modification."

"Wow, this is turning into GeneCo's most spectacular and unpredictable event ever."

"That's right, Dick. Only a few short hours until Blind Tabitha's final performance, this is guaranteed to be talked about for years and years to come."

Everywhere the atmosphere is like a carnival, with people walking on stilts, juggling, eating fire, and other weird acts. Many are covered in elaborate tattoos or piercings. Then the scene moves to the inside of a tent. A man is sitting in a dentist-type chair and based on the hair and build, it is most likely Ebon "Pavi" Winter Largo. Three skankily-dressed genterns face him. The most official looking one steps up, straddles the man in the chair, and nods to the other two.

"Genterns. Genterns, they secure the finest skin graft."

"And stacked!"

"Scalpel!"

"Scalpel!"

"Needle, thread!"

"That should do it!"

"Okay Mr. Largo, want to see your new face?"

They spin him around, revealing that it is indeed Ebon with a new skin mask, which he touches delicately. "Oh, it's so perfect!" he croons happily.

Philip storms around outside all the tents. "Someone's going to hang if I don't get my coffee!"

"Decaf?" a minion asks.

"I WILL SHOOT YOU IN THE FACE!"

"Sorry Mr. Largo, here's a fresh cup for you."

Philip takes a sip and spat it out, leaping towards the hapless minion and stabbing him repeatedly. "What's this, rat piss?" he snarls, taking a large bite from the minion's throat as the death scream is abruptly cut off.

Blind Tabitha appears. She is a lovely creature who was turned while she was still a young woman in the prime of life. Her thick black hair is piled up on her head and her eyes are an unnatural shade of light blue… something is clearly off about her eyes. And then it hits you, they are the ones that have been advertised, and now the word Blind is a bit of a misnomer for it is clear she can see as well as any of them now.

"Philip, stop it!" she scolds him. Philip stares at her.

Rachel comes storming up in some weird skimpy little dress. Her hair is now short and almost red, and her face is tanner than before. "Who's gonna sing then after you leave?"

"Rachel please, it's not my place," Tabitha whisper-sings.

"Someone must sing, why can't it be me?" Rachel whines.

"Sister, please," Ebon says.

"Just shut your face!" Philip yells at her.

"Listen, you bitch!" Rachel yells at Tabitha. "When I'm running GeneCo…"

"In your dreams!" Philip laughs.

"Dad loves me!" Rachel yells.

"And they all love the Pavi," Ebon purrs.

"When the geezer croaks…" Rachel squawks.

"You will all learn to respect me!" Philip yells.

"That's enough!" Rodger exclaims, walking up to them.

"But she/he…!" his children cry.

"Children, off!" Rodger yells. His brood storms furiously away. Rodger composes himself for a moment, then focuses on Tabitha. "Tab, there's someone I'd like you to meet. A daughter of an old friend. A ghost from your past. Seeing you two stir memories…" he adds in a gentle croon. "Tab was so young, not much older than you… I heard her sing and at that moment knew… I'd help her to see and watch her talent bloom. I could help you too."

The loudspeaker squawks to life. "Will the voice of GeneCo please take the stage? Blind Tabitha to the stage!"

Greta finds herself being hustled aside by the twins as Rodger and Tabitha stride off. Tabitha looks stricken by the sight of Greta, but the girl is so pleased to meet her idol that she barely even notices. Rodger and Tabitha soon stand side by side in front of the press.

"Please don't go," Rodger begs.

"I must go," Tabitha warbles. Her voice is rich and lovely, and she has clearly been trained well.

"Don't say no."

"I must see."

"Technically, you belong to GeneCo." There is a hint of malice in Rodger's voice and Tabitha's eyes widen almost imperceptibly. "Of course I joke," Rodger adds.

"Of course you joke."

"You're free to go."

"I've got tonight… tonight."

"Everybody, everybody line up, line up now!" Rodger announces. "We have opera tickets, don't be shy!"

Greta stands alone in the middle of the tent where the twins had left her. Clearly Rodger has gone and she is feeling guilty about taking off without speaking to her father.

"How am I going to find my way home?" she asks herself. Her voice is a bit more high-pitched than normal.

Eric is in his lab when his communicator beeps. "Incoming message from Rodger Largo."

"Collect on the Handleman account at once. His payment is past due. Repossess GeneCo's property."

In a dark alleyway, the hapless man has fallen into the snare Eric set up for him. "Oh my God! I'm sorry! I'll pay later! No, stop, no! No no no no no!"

Eric springs forward and hits the man on the head to quiet him. Just as he is about to get to work…

"Medicine reminder."

Eric hits a button on his communicator. "Greta?"

In the tent, Greta jumps, and hits her communicator. "Yes Dad?"

"Did you take your medicine?"

"Yes."

In the background, shouting and laughing can be heard by Eric.

"What's that?"

"What's what?"

More noise.

"That."

"Oh. That. My window is cracked."

"Then why aren't you wearing your mask? Should I head back?"

"No, I'm fine!"

"I can be there in no time."

"That won't be needed."

"But Greta…"

"Your patients need you."

Right on cue, the man groans. Eric quickly hits him again, but…

"Dad, who's that?"

"Oh that? One of my patients, he's sick."

"Will he live?"

"It's looking grim."

"You should stay there for a while."

"I will rush home when I'm done."

"Take your time, nothing's wrong."

"I love you Daughter/Father."

Greta glares accusingly at the reminder on her arm, which continues to beep annoyingly. "Medicate immediately. Blood pressure warning." She gulps down a pill and listens as an announcement for Zydrate can be heard faintly. She turns around in surprise when she hears the canvas behind her ripping. Talbot the Grave Robber pokes his head inside and glances around, then hisses to catch her attention.

"You're real?" Greta gasps, staring at him. He hisses again. "Don't bother me."

"I'm sorry."

"You'll get me caught… … I must get home."

"Follow me."

"Where are we going? Where are you taking me?"

Rachel is sulking outside a tent nearby and she spots Talbot. Uttering an angry yell, she starts running after him, followed by her beefcake guards.

"Shit…" Talbot mutters. "Run faster."

"What? Why? Who are they?" Greta asks.

"Don't worry about it, just run!" Talbot exclaims, and they run faster. Since Talbot has his freaky cat speed and Greta has her awesome vampire speed, they quickly lose Rachel and her henchmen.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Still don't own anything. Please review.

Back at the press conference, a handsome vampire reporter who looks like he belongs on TMZ approaches Rodger. "Mr. Largo, how are you? The folks at home would to know… your thoughts and views about Zydrate use… and its abuses. Would you care to comment, sir?"

"Well, thank you sir!" Rodger says, putting his arm companionably around the reporter. "Let me direct the matter to my daughter, the mind behind the Zydrate support network. Welcome Rachel to the stage." He pauses, waiting, but she does not appear. He sings louder. "Welcome… Rachel… to the stage!" She still doesn't appear and the crowd begins to boo. Rodger looks furious.

Meanwhile in another dark, dank, and trash-strewn alley, Greta and Talbot burst in, panting slightly. Several tired and trashy-looking whores are lounging around, but seeing Talbot, they move in to circle him and Greta. The whores bear the vampire bite marks that show they are thralls or former thralls. One rather plump girl with many piercings in her face and wearing fishnets approaches Greta and starts touching her hair.

"How old are you?" she asks.

"Seventeen," Greta replies. Relatively true anyways. It was how old she had been when she was turned and it was how long she had been a vampire.

"I had my first surgery when I was thirteen. And thanks to Z, I couldn't feel or remember a thing. A month later… I was turning tricks." She walks away to join the circle of girls while Greta grimaces in disgust.

Talbot just stands in the middle of the circle, relaxed and smiling. Occasionally he reaches out to touch one of the whores as they slither around him. Then he begins to sing in his gentle reassuring baritone.

"Drug market… Submarket… Sometimes I wonder why I ever got in. Blood market… Love market… Sometimes I wonder why they need me at all." He pushes one of the whores away from him, then pulls out one of the vials of the bright blue drug. "Zydrate comes in a little glass vial."

"A little glass vial?" Greta asks.

"A little glass vial!" the whores hiss, glaring at her and circling Talbot more tightly than before.

"And the little glass vial goes into the gun like a battery. And the Zydrate gun goes somewhere against your anatomy. And when the gun goes off, it sparks and you're ready for surgery." As he speaks, he puts the vial into the gun and the girls throw themselves all over him until he selects one and injects the drug into her. She collapses as soon as the drug hits her system.

Rachel strides in with her two beefcake henchmen. She now has long dark hair and is garbed in the same very slutty leather dominatrix outfit from earlier. She shoves one of the whores out of her way, clearly annoyed that such an inferior person is impeding her progress.

"Grave Robber… Grave Robber… Sometimes I wonder why I ever bother," she sings. Her voice is no longer whiny, but low and sultry as she sashays her way towards him. "Grave Robber… Grave Robber… Sometimes I wonder why I need you at all."

"And Rachel Sweet is addicted to the knife," Talbot continues, walking up to her. She smiles and presses her body against him. He grabs her wrists roughly and one of the beefcake henchmen steps between them.

"Addicted to the knife?" Greta asks.

"Addicted to the knife," the whores chorus. They had fled to the perimeter when Rachel appeared and are now lounging against walls or draping themselves over nearby fire escapes.

"And addicted to the knife, she needs a little help with the agony."

"Agony," the whores moan together.

"And a little help comes in a little glass vial in a gun pressed against her anatomy. And when the gun goes off, Miss Sweet is ready for surgery, surgery…"

Rachel backs against a wall and begins slithering up and down it, gyrating seductively. "Grave Robber… Grave Robber… Sometimes I wonder why I need you at all."

Talbot pulls out a vial and Rachel's eyes fixate on it. He injects the syringe into her inner thigh and she slides to the floor, head tilting back in ecstasy. Her world dissolves into vague shapes and memories, as blurry whores dance around her; she remembers lying on the chair with genterns standing over her, straddling Talbot on the ground in an alley, her own body posed seductively on the surgical chair…

"It's clean, it's clear, it's pure, it's rare…"

"It's what?"

"It takes you there."

"It what?"

"It takes… you… there… It's clean, it's clear…"

"Before the cut…"

"It's clean, it's clear…"

"I can't feel nothing at all," Rachel slurs.

"It's surgery, it's surgery, it's surgery."

"It's the way your friends may change inside…"

"Feel alive…" Rachel moans, head lolling. Her beefcake henchmen stand on either side of her, keeping everyone else away. Talbot starts humming a tune. Greta turns to stare at him.

"That's Blind Tab's song," she exclaims.

"Who did that?" Rachel screams, hurling herself upright and trying to lunge. The beefcakes grab her arms, holding her upright, but she shakes them off and stares blearily as Talbot points at Greta. Rachel staggers towards here. "So you think you got heart? So you think you got balls? So you think Tab can sing?"

"I don't think nothing at all…" Greta whispers.

"So you think Tab has the pipes? Well it's my turn to shine… when the Repo Man strikes!"

"What are you talking about?"

Talbot taps Greta on the shoulder gently and hands her a small pamphlet. "Tab's contract's got some mighty fine print."

"Some mighty fine print?"

"Some mighty fine…" the whores moan together.

"And that mighty fine print puts Tab in a mighty fine predicament. If Tab up and splits, her eyes are forfeit, and if GeneCo and Rodger so will it… then a Repo Man will come and she'll pay for that surgery… surgery… surgery."

Suddenly the alley lights up as a SWAT team races in. The whores begin shrieking and scattering. Talbot grabs Greta's hand and pulls her away down the street. Rachel slumps over in the arms of her beefcake bodyguards, who fan her face with their hands. They still have the exact same deadpan expressions on their faces. "I can't feel nothing at all…" Rachel moans.

One of the guards steps over to Rachel and speaks into his communicator. "Sir, we have Rachel. We're bringing her in."

Talbot and Greta leap onto a passing garbage truck, which conveniently goes right past Greta's house. She hops off and Talbot waves as he continues his ride. She sneaks into the house and creeps up to her room, just missing Eric stepping out from his secret passage behind the fireplace. He glares down at his communicator in annoyance.

"Incoming message. Incoming message."

"Eric Wallace, come to my office at once," Rodger says.

Eric rolls his eyes and goes upstairs to check on his daughter. She is curled up in bed and appears to be asleep. "Honey? Are you awake?" No response, so off he goes, leaving Greta to think over her most recent adventure.

Eric arrives at the GeneCo headquarters. Philip greets him politely as always.

"Well who ordered pizza? I could sure go for a slice!" Philip exclaims, pulling out a knife and laughing.

"Oh, never too pressed for that dramatical entrance," Ebon coos.

"You wanted to see me?" Eric asks, ignoring Rodger's youngsters.

"Thank you for coming. I have your new assignment."

"Hot off the meat truck!" Philip exclaims.

"Is there a reason why you couldn't phone me this target?" Eric asks tiredly.

"This is a job of special importance. It is involving a GeneCo employee, a singer we all know."

"That has-been soprano!" Rachel yelps, jumping up from the couch."

"A traitor to GeneCo!" Philip adds.

"Tonight is her last show!" Rachel shrills.

"I can't afford a scandal here, please handle Tab as best you can," Rodger adds.

"Take… her… down!" the three children chorus.

"But Tab's eyes…" Eric begins.

"Are GeneCo's," Rodger says patiently. "I know this may seem hard…"

"Tab was Marni's best friend."

"You break my friggin' heart!" Philip yowls.

"You can reunite them," Ebon purrs.

"I cannot do this job," is Eric's firm response.

"Remember who you are," Rodger replies. "Remember what you did to Marni. Must I take you back there?"

"Please don't take me back there…"

"Why relive that moment?"

"I can't relive it."

"That dark, fateful night when you murdered your wife."

"It's too painful."

"Marni was past helping."

"Marni was past helping."

"Greta's life was slipping."

"Greta was slipping…"

"She needed her dad and I needed skilled hands… So I fixed things. We made an agreement."

"I will honor that agreement."

"You'll do are you're told…"

"I'll do as I'm told."

"So Greta never knows… About that dark and fateful night."

"Or my secret repo life."

"Don't deny your repo life."

"Dear Marni, I am so sorry, can you forgive me for this?" Eric asks as he is led to a plastic-lined room with another man strapped to a chair. Rodger and his children and several genterns are also in the room, circling them and singing.

"Not the death doctor with the hungry scalpel, here's my prognosis, will they live?" Rodger asks.

"Doubtful!" the twins chorus as they cock their guns, preparing to murder Eric should he fail to comply with Rodger's orders.

"You're the street physician carving rare sculptures," Rodger continues.

"Paint your ass like a Rembrandt!" adds Philip.

"Ha! You like that?" Ebon asks.

"Better start praying when you see him coming, for tonight it's curtains, you're the night surgeon!" sings Rodger.

"I remember," Eric almost wails in his agony and grief.

"Remember what you did to Marni," sing the genterns, prancing around him. "Remember who you are."

"I remember."

"Remember what you did."

"To your knife! See it glide! See it slice!"

Eric digs his claws into the victim, tearing him apart. "Who's your night surgeon? I hope you have my money."

"Or it's 'buon viaggi'," Ebon murmurs.

"He'll do your ass like dishes!" Philip adds. "Amputation!"

"Remember who you are!"

"I remember!"

"Remember what you did to Marni! Remember who you are!"

"I remember!"

"Remember what you did to her! Remember who you are!"

"I remember!"

"Remember what you did to Marni! Remember who you are!"

"I remember!"

"Remember what you did to her!"

"I remember… every dying whisper… every desperate murmur… I remember when I gazed upon her… She looks just like you… I remember… I remember working every victim… with acute precision… I remember every time I hold you… my blunt companion… I remember… I dismember… Cause the claims medic gives no anesthetic! 90-day delinquent gets you repo treatment! Remember horror on your street corner, make your mama mourn you, I'm a night… surgeon. I remember!" Bloody tears streak his cheeks and blood is spattered all over the room. Eric takes a moment to try to rein in his grief, but it is overwhelming. He starts out of the room.

"Eric!" Rodger exclaims.

Eric turns to glance at Rodger over his shoulder. "I cannot do this job. Find someone else."

"No one walks away from me! Eric!" Rodger screams. "He wants out? Then I will take him out…" And Rodger looks positively devilish as he says this.

Eric flees the Largo house as fast as he can. It's all too much. He had never admitted his affair with Tabitha to Rodger. He had no way of knowing if the cruel man knew about it. It would have hurt him to kill Tabitha regardless. Marni had adored her and the woman had been a frequent visitor to the house before they'd adopted Greta, and even afterwards, although she had never met the child.

Eric had been as astounded as anyone else when Tabitha had declared that she was leaving GeneCo. He hadn't spoken to her in ages… he didn't know what her plans were. He'd asked himself so many times whether she might be leaving Void City… Eric didn't think he'd be able to stand it if Tabitha left Void City. Other than Greta, she was the only bright spot in the entire infernal city. Eric had wanted so much to ask her what her plans were… but he hadn't done it. He was afraid that she would ask him a question that he still did not know the answer to… Well, that wasn't true. He knew he still cared very deeply for Tabitha. However, he wasn't sure he could reconcile his guilt over betraying Marni by welcoming Tabitha back into his life. Perhaps Marni had wanted him to be with Tabitha… she had been very insistent that Tabitha become like another mother to Greta… But Eric could not do it. He'd been so overjoyed to find Marni alive and well after thinking she was dead for so long… he just could not let her go. Her death had been all his fault. He couldn't stop himself from thinking that she would have been better off with Rodger.

And now Tabitha might leave his life as well. Eric wasn't sure he could stand it… but he was also sure that he wasn't ready to bring Tabitha back into his home. And if he could not offer her even that much, what right did he have to approach her and stop her from leaving Void City if that's what she wanted to do?


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: Don't own Void City or the Repo! movie. Review please!

Back at the Wallace household… Blind Tabitha steps out of her limo and approaches the gate. She is wearing a long black dress and a hat with a veil. She approaches the call button and speaks gently into it.

"Greta? Is your name Greta? Can I talk to you? Can you come down, please?"

"Why?" Greta whispers, her voice shaking. She is feeling stressed again. Too many new people in such a short amount of time. She's frightened, but Tabitha is prepared for this and is ready to reassure her.

"So we can speak…" Now Tabitha's voice changes, gaining confidence. It's a lovely rich voice. "I saw you at the show, I thought I'd seen a ghost. Your resemblance is striking. You have your mother's eyes, her hair. I was told you died with her. All these years have come and gone… How do I put this? I'm your… godmum."

Greta pushes a button to open the gate and hesitates on the stairs as she stares at Tabitha through the door. "State your business."

"Business?"

"What do you want?"

"I want, I want to finally meet you. Something real to cling to, leave you with the hope that you will go to all you're meant to, all I failed to. In you is a world of promise. We have both been kept in bondage. But you could learn from all my failures."

"I'm not supposed to talk to strangers."

"Or let them through the gate?"

"That either. A big risk."

"A big fence."

"A big mistake."

"A new friend." Then from Tabitha's eyes springs a full-size hologram of an older stately-looking woman in a long dress… It is Marilyn as Tabitha first saw her, right after the surgery that gave her the gift of sight.

"Oh my God… Mom?" Greta whispers. Tears appear in her dark eyes as she remembers the woman who loved her as though she were her own daughter. Greta throws herself down the stairs, yanks the door open, then retreats to a safe distance again. "How'd you do that?"

"Do what?"

"That. That eye thing."

"These eyes can do more than see."

"I know. I mean, I've seen you sing."

"Where?"

"From my window. I can see the world from there. Name the stars and constellations, count the cars and watch the seasons."

"I wish we could have watched together."

"I can't have guests."

"Never?"

"Ever. If Dad found out that I'd been let out, or that you'd been let in…"

"I should go then. Before I do, promise me you won't…"

"Better that you don't."

"Don't forget a sheltered rose…"

"It's best if I resume my life."

"…needs a little room to bloom outside her bedroom."

Tabitha throws her head back and the vision of Marilyn appears again. Greta stares at her with hungry eyes. She misses her mother so much, and Eric has been so wrapped up in his own guilt and misery that he really hasn't taken the time to notice this. In the background, a voice that might be Marilyn's can be heard singing, "Chase the morning, yield for nothing, chase the morning, yield for nothing."

Tabitha's beautiful voice rises now. "Let your life be a dream, integrity, honesty. It's too late for me. Don't look back till you're free to chase the morning."

The voice can be heard in the background again. "Yield for nothing, chase the morning, yield for nothing, yield for nothing."

Tabitha backs slowly towards the door, but before she reaches it, it opens to reveal Eric. Greta lets out a strangled yelp and flees to her bedroom. The vision of Marilyn vanishes and Tabitha turns to face the man she loved, and still loves. They stare at each other for a long painful moment. The air is heavy with words unsaid. Tabitha feels all the old desires racing through her. Eric reaches out to her, touching her face gently. It feels as though his fearful thoughts and desires have summoned her back to his house for the first time in years… She tried to come around after Marni's death, but he was so frightened for Greta, so horrified by what he'd done to cause his wife's death, that Eric had refused to see her. He'd told her that Greta had died as well so she would feel no obligations to come back. She'd tried… oh, she had tried. She'd come to his door every day for the first two years after Marni's death… then just every other day… then once a week… then once a month… and still he refused to see her or speak to her, and finally she had stopped coming at all. They'd barely seen each other, except for a few times at the Largo estate. They hadn't been alone together in seventeen long years.

"Hi Eric," Tabitha whispers.

"Tab… How did you get in here? Don't you have a show tonight?" Eric asks, dropping his hand and turning away quickly.

"How are you Eric?"

"Busy."

"You never were a man of many words, Nate. You told me Greta died," Tabitha hisses accusingly.

"Listen…"

"Eric… I promised your late wife that I'd be present in Greta's life."

"Please Tab! …Greta's very ill. It's not safe… for her to see people. I need to give her her medication."

"Dad!" Greta exclaims, deciding the danger was past and ready to face her father. "Let her stay in here."

"No, she's leaving."

"Please hide her here!"

"From what?"

"She'll be dead!"

"Look," Eric says to Tabitha, "I told you she was sick." He starts dragging Tabitha towards the door.

"Eric, you are hurting me."

"Dad!"

"My daughter needs a rest."

"I'll be fine, Greta, don't you fret."

"Repossessions are dangerous! You're not safe, Dad, she's not safe!"

"Greta, don't you fret," Tabitha tries to soothe her.

"Leave my daughter…"

"Eric, what has become of you?"

"She is sick."

"You've turned this house into a tomb."

"I can't have this!"

"Marni wouldn't want this for you! Set her free!"

"Please don't leave!" Greta begs.

"Set her free!" Tabitha pleads to Eric, though it's hard to say whether she is speaking more of Greta or of Marilyn.

"Come back!" Greta cries dashing to the door as Eric forces Tabitha outside.

"Keep it down, Shi." Eric's voice is stern.

"Come back!"

"It's your bedtime, it's late!"

"Dad!"

"Please!"

"She'll die!"

"Nonsense!"

"It's a Repo Man, Dad!"

"Nonsense."

"It's a contract!"

"Contract?"

"Come and see!"

"Nonsense."

"Come see!" Greta throws herself into her bedroom and meets her father on the landing with the pamphlet that Talbot had given her. "Tab's in trouble, Dad!"

"Where did you get this?"

"Read it, Dad, a repo man will come and take Tab's eyes!"

Eric reads for a moment, then a frown lines his face as he stares at his daughter. "There are things in life that we do best to leave alone."

"She'll die, you must help her, Dad!"

"…That are beyond control."

"You must stop her!"

"…That you don't want to know."

"Will you save Tabitha? She will lose her eyes unless you stop this Repo Man!"

"Greta, this is senseless."

"Dad, you have to try!"

"Greta, this is pointless."

"You can't let her die!"

"Please shut up!" He pauses for a moment to steady himself. "Your mother's death taught me to accept… that nothing ever last in this world. Foolish dreams can destroy a grown man. What chance has a 17-year old girl?"

Greta stares incredulously at him, then she puts her hands on her hips. "I don't know what I was thinking… there's no sense in girlish dreaming. I'm just seventeen… seventeen… And it's better than forty."

At that moment, the room becomes dark with disco-type lights and Greta finds herself wearing a tight black outfit instead of her usual white dress or white shirt and black skirt. Greta throws herself into an impetuous wild dance as suddenly a bunch of teenagers are being held out of her room by security guards and all her stuffed animals begin dancing to the music as well. Eric just looks at his daughter in exasperation.

"Mama drama's got to go! Nothing's gonna bring her back. Experiment with something living, because I'm sweeter than sixteen… Hey, hey! Hey, hey! I've always longed for true affection, but you compared me to a corpse! Done with the dead, I'm joining the living! Because I'm freeer than sixteen. Hey, hey! Hey, hey!"

"Greta…"

"Something's changing… I can feel it. Seventeen now. Why can't you see it? Seventeen and you can't stop me; seventeen and you won't boss me! You cannot control me, Father. Daddy's girl's a fucking monster!" She flips her dad the double bird, and Eric finally loses control, slapping his daughter in the face and knocking her to the ground. The rock scene dissolves and her room is back to normal.

"I'm sorry Greta," Eric whispers, kneeling down to his daughter and holding her close. Bloody tears fill his eyes. He has bungled everything. All he wanted to do was put his arms around Tabitha and tell her to stay with him and Greta now, but then she was angry and then Greta appeared and Eric couldn't bring himself to show affection for another woman in front of Greta… so he'd shouted at Tabitha instead and forced her to leave when he should have tried to help her… But he didn't know what he could do to help her. She was living under a sentence of death… And now Greta was rebelling and he couldn't handle it anymore. It was all too much…

Rodger sits at his desk when Rachel storms in, her face hidden by a veil, and her voice as high-pitched and whiny as ever. "I've never been so surgically maimed!" she wails.

"Rachel, please. It's not that bad," Rodger says in exasperation. He is sure she's being overdramatic again.

"I'll be the laughingstock of the stage!"

"Daughter please, it's not that bad."

"This is your fault! I asked you to help me!"

"No, Rachel, please."

"I warned you about this!"

"Happiness is not a warm scalpel!"

"I don't care! It's not fair!" she wails.

"Baby, baby, baby, don't do this."

"I will never sing again."

"I gave you the life I wished I'd had."

"I look like a crime scene, Dad."

"All you ever do is take, take, take. All I ever do is give."

"That surgery was only 90 grand!"

"I did not complain when you changed your name from Largo to Sweet."

"I need a stage name!"

"You are a disgrace! Your genes are not worthy of mine!" Rachel finally looks at him and he sees the mess of scars and chemical burns on her face. It is so horrific that Rodger staggers backwards to his chair and finds himself coughing so hard he cannot speak. For the first time, Rachel appears to notice his distress.

"Are you okay, Daddy?"

"I'll have one of my surgeons fix you up so you can sing tonight," Rodger gasps.

A smile of triumph appears on Rachel's face. She kisses her father on the cheek happily. "Thanks Daddy!" she squeals, skipping out of the room like a child. Rodger sits at his desk for a while without saying anything, then leans back and sighs.

"Flesh… is weak. Blood… is cheap. Inconsistent… consistently… Use your sense… save your cents… The only thing with persistence is gold… It makes the world go round… Gold… It makes the world go round… But before I go, my kids will know about the man they have crossed. As Marni did… the day she fled… and became Eric's wife. She forced my hand, he dug her grave. I will not be betrayed. Empty the trash of all of them, and leave it all to the kid! Lay the bait, Greta's fate, but only if… And will she appreciate… that gold… it makes the world go round… gold… it makes the world go round… gold…"

Greta's communicator beeps, but it is Eric who sees it as he tucks his daughter into bed. Curiosity overcomes him and he reaches for the communicator.

"Greta," Rodger's voice says, "I have your cure. Tonight, all will be revealed. See you at the opera."

Eric's face looks even more bloodless than usual. His voice drops to a deadly growl. "So, Rodger thinks he can take Greta?" he snarls.

"Dad?" Greta whispers, her eyes fluttering open.

"Nothing, Greta, nothing… go to bed."

"Why didn't you tell me I had a godmother?"

"What? What are you talking about, precious?"

Greta closes her eyes as Eric leaves the room. Meanwhile, a tinny voice can be heard as Eric descended into his tunnel. "Attention all GeneCo personnel… Apprehend the Repo Man, Eric Wallace, at once. Bring him to me. I want Eric Wallace taken out."

Eric finds himself being attacked by several people in black. He defeats them all easily, but then his eyes widen in horror. "Greta… GRETA!" he cries, racing up to her room. But the girl is gone. She has already slipped outside. "Tonight… we are… betrayed…" Eric hisses. "Keep Greta safe… Make Rodger pay… On Marni's grave… at the opera… tonight." He is losing himself now. First Rodger nearly steals Marni from him… then she dies. Now Rodger demands that he kill Tabitha, the only woman with a prayer of thawing his icy heart. If Tabitha has any sense, she'll flee the city after the opera tonight, maybe she will survive… But now Rodger wants to take Greta too… no! It is too much. Eric is close to the breaking point as he wonders where Greta could have been taken.

Greta climbs into the waiting limo and finds a package waiting for her with a message from Rodger. "Greta, this dress once belonged to your mother. I would be most honored if you wore it to the opera."

Greta's hands are shaking as she stares at the dress. "I must be brave… come, come what may… Can I be saved? Is there a way... at the opera tonight?"

Tabitha walks through the cemetery to lay a bouquet of flowers outside Marni's tomb. "I've made my peace."

In his secret chamber, Eric dresses himself in his Repo Man costume. "No chance for peace."

"I hold no grudge."

"I'll end this grudge."

"I'm gonna sing…"

"I'll stain the streets."

"My final song…"

"They'll run with blood."

"At the opera tonight," they sing together.

Rachel opens a dumpster to reveal Talbot looking completely at ease. "One more hit for the show! Make it fast!"

"Take it slow."

"One more hit of the glow!"

"Don't get caught," Talbot hisses at her.

"For tonight's show!"

Rodger and his sons stand together in the opera house. Rodger looks very pleased. "Tonight… I set the stage."

"Tonight we set the stage," the boys echo back.

"My greatest play," Rodger muses.

"My greatest face!" Ebon purrs.

"My greatest rage!" Philip howls.

"I'll take the lead," Rodger adds.

"Pavi gets laid," Ebon smirks.

"All debts are paid," Rodger continues. "At the opera tonight!"

Tabitha stands in the middle of the cemetery and throws her head back, letting her thick black hair tumble around her. "Repo Man… Repo Man…"

Eric starts making his way out of the house, but finds himself accosted by more men. "Freeze!" they yell, but they are cut down before they can properly attack him.

"At the opera tonight," he growls.

"Repo Man, come take my hand," sings Tabitha.

"At the opera tonight," sings Rodger.

"Repo Man, my eyes!"

"At the opera tonight!" Amber shrieks like a harpy.

Talbot sits next to a bin holding a small fire, two whores huddling around his boots. "Bloodbath… It's gonna be a bloodbath. Cause no one crosses GeneCo… No, not even Repo. Will Rodger clean house? Damn, we're gonna find out… at the opera. Stay tuned. The winner of this blood feud… will take GeneCo."


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: Once again, don't own jack shit. Please review!

The scene changes to the opera house, which is crowded with wealthy people in their best clothing. The emcee in a tux plunges in followed by rows of scantily-clad gyrating genterns.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the Genetic Opera!" sounds over the loudspeakers.

"Everybody, everybody!" the emcee yells. "Get down, get down now. Stand up! Don't be shy! People, people, people. Everybody, everybody testify! Everybody get down, get down now. Stand up! Don't be shy! People, people, people, get up, get up, get up! Everybody testify!"

A skinny young vampire appears next to the emcee. "GeneCo helped my upgrade my second-class heredity!"

"Testify!"

A skinny tramp of vampire in a low-cut dress is next. She lifts her martini glass to the crowd. "My liver was wrecked, but now I can drink whatever I want!"

"Testify!"

An enormous werewolf stands up next. "Before GeneCo, my anatomy was completely repressed." He throws back his head and howls as everyone cheers.

"State… your… names!" the emcee yells to the girls who have made it to the stage by now.

"Genterns." And with that, the girls start making out, feeling each other up, mock-humping each other, and just generally acting like a bunch of sluts, punctuated with many sexually-charged moans and sighs and squeals of ecstasy.

"S-s-s-s-s-s-saved!" the emcee yells. "Everybody, everybody! Testify! Stand up and don't be shy! People, people, people, get up, get up, get up! Everybody, everybody, testify!"

Philip stands with his arm around a lovely young woman with platinum blonde hair and gestures for her to sing her piece.

"I needed a kidney transplant desperately. GeneCo showed this single mom sympathy," she simpers. "This makeover came for a small added fee, and now I look smashing on live TV!" She rips her clothes open, to reveal every inch of her fully naked body. And Philip definitely cops a feel as she does this.

Rodger walks in, gesturing magnificently. "Be healed!" he proclaims.

"GeneCo's got it! You know you want it, baby, GeneCo's got it!" the geneterns are singing now, along with the Largo boys and the emcee. "You know you want it, baby, GeneCo's got it. You know you want it, baby. Testify! Testify! Testify! Testify! Testify!"

Greta walks into an old abandoned house. A projection of Rodger appears and he has a message for her.

"Greta, you've made it. You're close enough to taste it. Your cure, your cure is waiting. There is but one thing pending. Help us catch him. This former GeneCo trainee who's lost his mind completely and managed to escape me. You saw him… in the graveyard. Thank God my guards responded. It seems this fiend has set his teeth on you, so be on guard. He's coming. We'll use you as bait to draw this snake out of his hole. And I am sorry, Greta, for that, but this is your defining moment. Will you let yourself by trapped, or will you use your trap to trap him?"

Greta looks even more white than usual and she begins to shake.

Back in the opera house, the emcee is making another announcement.

"Put your hands together for GeneCo's favorite, and only daughter, Rachel Sweet!"

Rachel appears. She has undergone surgery again. Her face is paler than before, and it is thinner and more well-defined. She has thick golden curls now, piled on top of her head, and rich blue eyes. She would be utterly gorgeous except for the fact that her face actually appears to be peeling off. She keeps nervously pressing at her forehead in a vain effort to hold it in place, and she tries to sing anyways.

"Blame not my cheeks, though pale with love they be…" She starts to spin and her face falls to the floor with an odd splat. The audience begins to hiss and boo at her. The stricken girl slowly crouches to pick up her face. The muscle tissue under her skin stands out, ghastly and red where before there had been alabaster skin. She looks at her disgusted father for a moment before fleeing in tears.

"And now, without further ado," calls Rodger, "the event you've all been waiting for. GeneCo proudly presents Blind Tabitha."

Tabitha glides out onto the stage. She is wearing a leotard that had been liberally decorated with thick black feathers. Her black hair is piled on top of her head. Her unnatural blue eyes stand out even more than normal because she has lined her eyes with so much feathery makeup, it's as though her eyes have wings and are trying to fly off her face.

"Tanto tempo fa

Un Uccello fatale di nome

Chromaggia

Incroci? In volo la freccia di un

Arciere

Lungo le coste li lava

Per anni, pensando di essere

Inseguita

Scapp? Dalla freccia

Chromaggia, chromaggia

Perche non affronti il pericolo

La freccia era legata all'ala

E lei volava per liberarsene"

She turns now and approaches the back of the stage, strapping herself into a harness and floating several feet into the air while holding her arms wide apart, as though she is lifting herself into the air under her own power.

"Tirando la freccia

Altri son ferriti per mia colpa

Mia colpa

Verso la bocca del diavolo!

La sua freccia, I mei occhi

Chromaggia…

Come take these eyes…!" Now she casts half a glance at Rodger, then focuses on the audience again, her brilliant bright blue eyes widening and sparkling. "I would rather be… blind!" With that, she looks at the decorative "talon-like" silver spikes attached to two of her fingers, and without hesitation, plunges them deep into her eyes. Vivid red blood spurts several feet in front of her and the audience gasps.

Rodger's face clouds with fury and he strides over to the rope holding Tabitha's harness, and slicing it. She plummets towards the ground, but is met partway by the spiked fence below, which impales her slender body. Now the audience begins to shriek with horror.

"Ladies and gentlemen, don't panic. Stay in your seats," Rodger says calmly, striding to the center of the stage as the curtains draw behind him. "It's all part of the show. Stay tuned folks, you don't want to move, folks. Cause there's more excitement coming. As an encore, GeneCo will cure a very sick and needy young girl. She's been caged up… like a monster… by her overbearing father. But tonight, we're gonna set it right and for all your viewing pleasures."

Inside the abandoned house, Eric in full Repo Man costume steps cautiously around. Seeing a figure in a dress he recognizes as belonging to Marilyn, he approaches it and moves to brush the veil aside, when Greta steps up behind him and hits him over the head with a poker. He tumbles to the ground and slowly removes his mask. Father and daughter stare at each other for an agonizing moment, then Eric drops his eyes before he can bring himself to lecture his daughter.

"Didn't I tell you not to go out? Didn't I?"

"You did, you did." Greta's voice is soft and terrified.

"Didn't I say the world was cruel? Didn't I?"

"You did, you did."

"Then tell me… how this happened, what I did wrong, tell me why. Can't we just go home, Shi, and forget this dreadful night?"

"Didn't you say that you were different, didn't you?" Greta's voice gains strength as she questions her father.

"I am, I am."

"Say you aren't that person, say it."

"I am, I am."

"Then tell me how to act, Dad, what to say, Dad, tell me why. All you've ever told me, every word… is… a… lie!" The last word comes out in a high-pitched keening sound.

At that convenient moment, a projection appears showing Tabitha's limp body. Eric and Greta are both struck dumb for several moments. Greta finds her voice first.

"Didn't you say that you'd protect me? Didn't you?"

"I tried, I tried."

"Is that how you'd help me? Is it?"

"I tried, I tried."

"Don't help me anymore, Dad, you are dead, Dad, in my eyes. Someone has replaced you. Dad, I hate you. Go and die!" With that, she turns and flees.

"Didn't I build a house, a home? Didn't I? Didn't I raise her all alone? Didn't I? Then Rodger took her from me, stole my Greta, he's to blame. Have I failed my daughter? Then let the father die! And let the monster rise!" Eric rises slowly and follows Greta.

Greta runs onto the stage at the opera house, clapping her hands to her mouth and letting out a strangled sob as she sees Tabitha's body in person. Then Eric strides in, shoving aside the twins. He approaches Tabitha's body reverently and touches her still face, before pushing her eyelids down over their empty sockets. He presses her limp hand to his lips for just an instant, wishing now that their last encounter had ended differently. There was so much he wanted to say to Tabitha. Maybe… just maybe… he would have given her the chance to try to heal his heart. But now that will never happen. He turns back to Rodger, furious that this man has now killed the only other woman he truly loved, in addition to trying to steal his daughter away from him. But while he is distracted, Philip reaches out and slices his hamstring, bringing him to the floor. The twins grab him and hold him in a kneeling position. Rodger nods approvingly at Greta.

"You've exceeded all my plans."

"More than you could say for Rachel," Philip gloats.

"More than I could say for you!"

"What?"

"Or your just-as-worthless brother," Rodger adds. Ebon looks properly shocked.

"I just want to get my cure," Greta whimpers.

"And I promise to deliver."

"Don't you lay a hand on her," Eric snarls.

"Watch your tongue before an elder!"

"Touch her, and I swear I'll kill you."

"Bring it on, you cheap imposter." And with a nod from Rodger, the twins shoot him with a taser, causing him to collapse. "Even though I'm terminally ill…" He pauses as people seemed confused. "I'm dying, you idiots."

"Please don't say you're dying, Father!" Ebon cries.

"Please say you ain't dying, Father!" Philip echoes.

"So I planned my perfect end."

"A tale befitting any opera!" the boys sing obediently.

"An ending only I could spin!"

"Ending you will be my pleasure," Eric snarls.

"I no longer trust you, Dad," Greta whispers.

"You can never trust a monster," Rodger agrees wisely. "And there's more beneath his mask. Did you know he killed your mother?"

"It was just an accident!" Eric moans.

"Accidents can end in murder."

"Greta, believe me."

"And that is not his greatest fib."

"Someone tell me what is going on!" Greta cries.

"Tell her, tell her!" Rodger and his sons chorus.

"Someone tell me what is going on!"

"Let's leave…" Eric mutters, although that really isn't an option.

"Tell her, tell her!"

"Let's leave…"

"Someone tell me what is going on!"

"No more…"

"Tell me, tell me…"

"Tell her, tell her!"

"Tell me…"

"No more…"

"May I introduce you," Rodger interrupts, "to the man who made you sick. He's poisoned all your medicine."

Greta drops to her knees. "I can't breathe."

"You've got to fight through it."

"Someone please, please help my daughter!"

"This will pass, you've got to fight through it," Rodger insists.

"I've deceived the only ones that matter," Eric mourns.

"I need my pill," Greta whispers.

"You need to know," Eric gasps. "It's not your fault."

"You've got to fight!" Rodger continues insisting.

"Believe me, Greta, it's me who failed you," Eric groans.

"My stomach…"

"It's his medicine."

"My medicine."

"It's your medicine?" Greta gasps, staring at Eric.

Eric hesitates. He doesn't know what Rodger is up to now. "I'm the cause of all your sickness," he says finally, since that seems to be what Rodger is trying to prove.

Greta finally collapses in a heap on the stage, passing out in a pool of Tabitha's blood.

Several minutes later, she comes to. Her father is bound to a chair nearby. Rodger puts his arm around the girl.

"Your mother once promised her love to me. Had she never fled, you'd be mine. Deny your father now for the world to see. Kill him!" he says, pressing a gun into her hands.

"Kill him!" Ebon and Philip yell.

"No."

"And I'll leave you GeneCo."

"What?" screams Philip, throwing the popcorn he'd been eating into the air.

"All of it?" Ebon wails.

"Oh yes!" Rodger snarls, smiling coldly at his sons.

"Oh no!" Ebon looks horrified by this news.

"So witness it, people. All I have to do is sign the paper. All you have to do is pull the trigger. I want you to do what is right."

"You… want… to… pay… me… to… kill my father?" Greta gasps in horror.

"This man killed your mother, your mother."

"Greta…" Eric whispers.

"He betrayed you both, he's a liar. And he poisoned you!"

"Force me to kill…" Greta shakes her head firmly and points the gun at Rodger instead. "I am not a murderer."

"But you share your dad's genetics. What if he passed this to you?"

"I don't have to share his choices."

"Didn't you say you were infected? Didn't you? Didn't you?"

"I poisoned you," Eric gasps, catching her attention. "I'm worse than Rodger… imprisoned you… I couldn't lose you. What have I done? Forgive me, Greta, I drugged your blood. Oh God, what have I done to you?" He's realized now that Rodger is going to kill him. Better, he decides, to allow Rodger to take Greta in. She's a delicate girl, not prepared to live in the real world. She has no education, no skills… really, this is her best option. Rodger could give her everything that he, Eric, never could. And if he's going to die now, the best way to encourage Greta to embrace Rodger as her new guardian… is to make her think that he, Eric, is the real monster on this stage.

Greta glares at Rodger. "You used my mother's death to use my father. You'll use my father's death to use me too."

"Your dad deserved whatever happened to him," Rodger insists. "He needed me, and so do you."

"I remember…" Eric moans. "Remember my mistakes… remember you can change… remember that I love you. I'm sorry that I failed you. Remember that it's up to you… to go and shape your life into… one that's worthy of remembering."

At that moment, the lights go out. Greta screams.

"NO!" Then a shot rings out. "DAD!" she shrieks. When the light comes back on, her father has been shot. Greta flies across the stage to his side. "Dad, no, please! Somebody! Somebody please help!"

The gun falls from Rodger's hand and hits the stage. "Money-grubbing beggars, no better than I am…" he gasps. His sons hurry towards him. "You! Don't come near me. You're embarrassing! You're disgusting. You're not men, you're creatures! I'm embarrassed by you. Get away. I don't need you, not either one of you. Go away!" He glances to the wing of the stage and sees Rachel standing there. She still has no skin on her face, but her eyes are large and frightened. "Don't show your face to me. You're disgusting. You're not my daughter. You're nothing. When I'm gone, GeneCo will crumble. I doubt the world will remember… how lucky they were… to have Rodger Largo." And with that he collapses and expires on stage.

Greta holds tightly to Eric, sobbing helplessly. She strokes the hair from his face and tries to smile at him when he opens his eyes. "Dad, be still. There is nothing you need say. It can wait." Her voice is soft and trembling, like a much younger girl's.

"Shi, your mother's… calling me."

"Sometimes I wanted to cry when the people on TV were not quite the way we were. Somehow I guess I just knew. But I didn't know I love you so much. I didn't know I love you so much. I didn't know I love you so much. But I do."

"Sometimes I'd stay up all night, wishing to God that I'd been the one who died. And sometimes there's not enough time… But I didn't know I love you so much. I didn't know I love you so much. I didn't know I love you so much. But I do."

Together the two of them sing, "I didn't know I love you do much. I didn't know I love you so much. I didn't know I love you so much. But I do."

"Greta, go," Eric sighs.

"Dad, I will not leave you here, you will live," Greta insists. She knows instinctively that her father lied to try to protect her. The medicines may have been drugged, but it must have been Rodger who gave Eric a faulty recipe… otherwise, how would he have known about the medicines in the first place?

"But you've already saved me, dear. Now go and change the world for me."

Together they sing again. "And we will always have each other in our time of need. Daddy/Greta, you're the world to me."

And with that, Eric's eyes close for the last time. Greta shakes her head, denying it as long as she can.

"Oh, Daddy, please, no… Please, please, please get up! Please!"

The audience continues to sit in their seats. They seem deeply moved by the performance and many are crying, but no one has the good sense to call for help! Seriously, they watch three people die on that stage and NO ONE thinks that maybe they should summon the police?

Finally Greta rises to her feet and begins to walk away from the stage and up the center aisle. "Years… it's been so many years… resenting the years… and my heredity. Oh, I have hated and loved you, I have hidden behind you, but I finally see. You I've mistaken for destiny, but the truth is my legacy is not up to my genes. True, though the imprint is deep in me, it will always be up to me… up to me. Free at last… free at last!" With that, she throws open the doors to the opera house and walks away without looking back.

Talbot is lounging in one of his favorite alleyways, smiling that mysterious smile. "Goth opera… Blood saga… Sometimes I wonder how we ever got here. Old grudges… scorned lovers… Sometimes I wonder why we all don't move on. Cause we all wind up in a tiny pine box, a mighty small drop and a mighty dark plot. And the mighty fine print hastens the trip to our epilogue."

"Epilogue?" cries a female voice that may or may not be Greta.

"But the little girl fled, and the king is dead, and the castle is left for the taking. But GeneCo may survive if it undergoes surgery… surgery… surgery…"

Rachel steps up to a bunch of reporters, flanked by Philip and Ebon. She has long brown hair and is dressed conservatively, looking very much like a real professional businesswoman.

"Our heroes will not be forgotten," she says sweetly. "GeneCo WILL live on, under new management. Me."

"Rachel Sweet, ladies and gentlemen! Rachel Sweet!" Philip exclaims, clapping for his sister. "I can't hear you. I can't fucking her you, you fucking peasants!" he cries. "You gonna start applauding? I'll kill you all, you fucking mice!" His fangs appear for a minute and his eyes blaze red. Then the rage fades and he begins to sob like a child. Everyone is so busy staring at Rachel and Philip, and no one is paying attention to Ebon. The suave debonair man isn't preening and primping as usual. He just watches the scene with narrow eyes, a tiny smile playing on his lips.


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: For the final time, I own nothing! Please review!

Epilogue:

6 months later…

Rachel has just given an interview with the press. She has done an excellent job of keeping up appearances in public and in interviews. She shows her pretty face at meetings and she does not change her appearance too drastically anymore. She hasn't been caught whoring herself off either. She gives every indication that the surgeries and the drugs and all were just part of a youthful phase, and that the responsibility of running the massive company has matured her.

Rachel is even more revered than Rodger for her seemingly mystical ability to juggle being the CEO of the largest and most famous organ transplant company, and grooming herself to become a singer like Tabitha. She appears to be in control of herself at last.

Philip also seems to be in control of his life. He still murders people that he feels threaten the family. He also still stabs random genterns and fucks the holes. But he does it considerably less often than he used to. Sometimes he seems positively docile in fact, something that was never true of him in life or undeath.

So who has wrought these changes in the Largo family? Who is the brain behind this metamorphosis?

Greta sneaks quietly into a dark warehouse. She's on a mission. There's a spooky voice in the background. "A needle… into a bug, a needle."

A single ray of light illuminates Talbot. A rope is wrapped around his ankles, suspending him upside down from the ceiling. His hair hangs down almost to the floor. His eyes are closed. Greta takes another step, making a soft noise. Talbot's head snaps up a bit.

"Who's there? Stay back!" he hisses softly.

"Do you have my cure?" Greta whispers.

"Kid? Is that you?" Talbot asks.

"I'm here to earn my cure."

"Your cure? Is that what this is about?" he asks. Greta nods. "Sorry… That fucking Rachel cleaned me out."

"But maybe later?"

"I'll hook you up later," Talbot promises. "Just help me down."

"The drug…"

"Yeah, the drug. Yeah?"

"The cure, it's…"

"The drug. Help me down. I'll score some."

"Help me shed some…"

"Kid, I'm out."

"Some?"

"I told you."

"Light on?"

"That's the situation."

"The situation?"

The pair began chanting softly together. "Into a bug, a needle… into a bug, a needle… into a bug, a needle… into a bug, a needle…"

"How about…" Talbot began, then stopped.

"Yeah?" Greta whispers.

"She's right beside you."

Greta looks around nervously and sees a hooker lying on the floor, apparently dead. "No, I need the Zydrate…"

"No, I'm out of Zydrate."

"No, it's like a nightlight."

"The beautiful…"

"You don't mean…?" Greta looks shocked and horrified. Whatever she has been doing up to this point is not as bad as harvesting secondhand Zydrate from a dead body.

"Yeah."

"You do mean…"

"So easy."

"I don't think…"

"Don't think."

"That I…"

"Just smack it."

"I guess I see."

"She won't. You've got to smack it to score…"

"A needle…" they whisper together. As they whisper together, Greta grabs a syringe from Talbot's bag which is lying on the floor underneath him. "Into a bug, a needle… into a bug, a needle… into a bug, a needle… into a… bug." Greta kneels down next to the whore, but just as her fingers touch the woman's face, her eyes snap open. Greta squeaks in surprise and falls over backwards. The whore jumps up and runs off. Greta is silent for a moment, and then manages to jump up and cut Talbot down.

Talbot manages to flip over and land on his feet since his catlike reflexes are fantastic. He bends over to look in Greta's eyes. They are haunted and fearful. Talbot utters a tired sigh and puts his arm around her.

"How have you been?" he asks her calmly.

"I've survived," she says simply.

"Come with me then. Let's find you something to eat. You'll feel better in the morning."

She says nothing, but follows behind him obediently.

"You know, I've been looking for you," Talbot says at last. Greta stares at him in surprise. "Didn't you ever wonder why I took you under my wing when you first started leaving the house?"

"Well… no…" she admits.

Talbot smiles. "Well… I knew your father. But that's a story for another time. Now let's go."

And the pair of them walk off together, Talbot holding Greta gently. She rests her head on his shoulder, feeling comfortable and safe for the first time since her father's death.

Rachel skips happily from her big fancy CEO office. It's a prop office, with all the trimmings. The real business happens in the smaller functional office next door. Rachel hurries in to find a fresh vial of brilliant blue Zydrate sitting on the desk waiting for her.

"Time to head to the recording studio?" Ebon asks her from his seat at the desk.

"It sure is," Rachel says, snatching up the bottle and the syringe. "Thanks for the Z."

"Come back when you're ready for the next dose, dearest sister," Ebon says with an affectionate smile. He doesn't mind keeping her supplied with liberal amounts of Zydrate. As long as she has plenty of the drug, she is willing to abide by her brother's rules… for the most part.

"Thanks little brother," Rachel squealed, giving him a peck on the cheek. This is actually even stranger than it sounds, somehow. When Rachel lost her face on stage the night her father died, Ebon suggested selling the face for charity. It gave the family some excellent publicity, especially when Ebon himself bought her face to wear. But for Ebon, the best part was that he was able to identify other people who could be threats later, with the amount of money and the desire to cultivate public goodwill that indicated that they had a chance to topple the Largo dynasty. And then Philip simply teared up in front of his brother, whimpering that he wanted Rachel's face for himself and mentioning that three other bidders were going to defeat him. Philip's thin ties to family loyalty emerged and he slaughtered the other bidders to please his baby brother.

Now Philip enters the room, holding the door open so his sister can pass. He sits down at the desk across from Ebon.

"You know, she's still picking up that street crap."

"I know."

"The tabloids are only in love with her now because they think she's turned over a new leaf… applied herself to the business and all that."

"True."

Philip frowns at Ebon. Ebon has an innocent smile on his face. Only Ebon knows why Philip is so much calmer. Ebon has secretly dosing Philip's food and drink with a cocktail of sedatives and mood-altering drugs so that he isn't so volatile. When his mind is fogged, Philip becomes strangely articulate, and he and Ebon have enjoyed many lengthy conversations. The best part, in Ebon's mind, was that by simply cutting off the cocktail, he had the rage-filled killing machine back to do his bidding again. He has more control over Philip now than Rodger ever did, and Philip is completely loyal to his younger brother, making Ebon practically unstoppable.

Ebon is only biding his time. Once Rachel's transformation loses its luster, Ebon will step forward and show that he has been the brains of the company since Rodger's death. Once everyone realizes that it's Ebon who has been making all the decisions and steering the company out of their troubled waters, they will have no choice but to recognize his genius. His wretched sister can continue her downward spiral, but the company will be safe and respected within Ebon's hands. It's the perfect plan.


End file.
